Best. thing. ever.

My amazing fashionista friend, Ami (mentioned here, here, and here), gave Anna this book as a going away gift (Ami was going away, not Anna) a few weeks ago. Anna immediately proclaimed her love for the book, and later for Ami.

Rosie Flo's Coloring Book is full of images of fabulous outfits: you add the head, hands, and feet. This little book kept Anna busy for about 4 days straight, and she keeps coming back to it. Paired with my Berol Prismacolors, left over from my art school days, it's a match made in heaven.









I love little things that give kids a jumping off point for their own creativity. Thanks, Ami, and bon voyage.

One an unrelated note, we're off to Florida (again) for a visit with the family (yet another excuse to delve deep into the genealogy stuff). Next post will likely be from more tropical climes.

Spicy sea kelp noodle salad

A few weeks back, my friend Ami took me raw food shopping. One of the things she said she loved was sea kelp noodles. Although I had no idea what one does with sea kelp noodles, they were packaged much like Asian noodles, so they seemed less intimidating than some of the other products I saw that day.

Because it was hot out, and because I had recently had an amazing meal at Pok Pok, I was craving green papaya salad. Although I had no papaya, nor had I ever made that dish, I got the idea to wing it using the sea kelp as a base.

I threw this together with ingredients on hand and I used a cheat ingredient, Annie Chun's Thai Peanut Sauce. The resulting dish was great, perfectly suited what I was craving, and came together in minutes. One of these days I plan to try making my own homemade peanut sauce, as I'm sure that'll be even better.

Here's a rough recipe:

1 package sea kelp noodles

handful each of chopped basil, cilantro, and mint

1-2 grated carrots

handful of bean sprouts

peanut sauce

red pepper flakes

juice of 1 lime, plus additional for garnish

chopped peanut for garnish

note: for the version in the photo, I added a package of Mixed Sea Veggies, but that's not necessary or even necessarily recommended for this dish.

Rinse the sea kelp noodles and soak in cold water for 15 minutes. Drain and toss with other ingredients. Garnish with lime wedges, peanuts, and cilantro sprigs. Serve immediately. (You can eat it later, but the noodles lose their crunch). Delish (if I do say so myself)!

Local color

Here in Portland, it's been beautiful for so many weeks now that it already feels like summer. Today, however, is grey with promises of rain. So I offer you some of the colors I've been collecting these past few weeks.


Ami, my fashionista friend, at her son's 5th birthday party. (In case you're keeping track, Ami is also my vegan/raw foodie friend!)


Poppies are everywhere right now!


As are irises.


Anna's toes, colored with washable marker (a favorite hack of mine!).


Because I am in love with all the poppies in bloom right now!


I don't know what these are, but they're so lovely. Their colors, against the faded paint of this house, has a very etherial quality to me.


The scale here reminds me of Alice in Wonderland!

Enjoy the rain, locals! The sun returns tomorrow.